Mark Lewis-Francis loses lottery funding from UK Athletics

He was once described by sprinting great Donovan Bailey as “the most
phenomenal talent I have ever seen”, but Mark Lewis-Francis has now found
himself cast into the wilderness after being axed from UK Athletics' Lottery
funding programme.

No more: Mark Lewis-Francis's absence last season has led to his funding being withdrawnPhoto: PA

By Simon Hart

2:00PM GMT 27 Oct 2009

The 27-year-old, who ran a brilliant final leg at the 2004 Athens Olympics to hold off American Maurice Greene and earn Britain the 4x100 metres gold medal, has been dogged by injury problems in recent years and missed the entire 2008 season with a torn Achilles’ tendon.

A year ago he parted company with coach Tony Lester and joined up with Linford Christie in an attempt to resurrect his sprinting career, though his hopes of gaining at least a place in the relay squad for this summer’s World Championships in Berlin ended in frustration when he finished last in the 100m final at the UK trials in Birmingham.

The Birchfield Harrier had already been placed on reduced ‘relay’ funding following his failure to reach the individual 100m final at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka but now faces the prospect of being cut off from financial support altogether. He will no longer qualify even for free medical care and physiotherapy.

It is a dramatic fall for the former junior world champion who, at the age of 18, announced himself as a global star in the marking when he clocked 9.97sec in his 100m quarter-final at the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton only for the time to be ruled illegal because of a faulty wind gauge.

But, despite anchoring Britain to Olympic relay gold three years later, he has failed to fulfil his early potential as an individual sprinter and UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee has finally lost patience.

Another former junior world champion, Christian Malcolm, has also paid the price for indifferent performances by being dropped from the funding programme.

The 30-year-old was fifth in the 200m final at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics but suffered a major dip in form this summer, finishing fifth in the 200m final at the UK trials and failing to gain selection for Berlin.

Other prominent athletes who have lost their Lottery support include hurdler Sarah Claxton and high jumper Martyn Bernard, though hurdler Andy Turner has been restored to the funding programme after being dropped in 2008.

Jenny Meadows, who took the 800m bronze in Berlin, has been promoted to top-tier ‘podium’ funding, as have the fast-improving 400m hurdler, David Greene, and 110m hurdler William Sharman.

Van Commenee said: "The criteria and selection process has been redeveloped to be much clearer and more transparent for all involved and I am confident it has produced a crop of athletes who will deliver to the aims of the programme, namely success on the global stage.”